t\\o 


AT   LOS  ANGELES 


THE 


O  F 


THE  TIMES  OF  COLUMBUS: 

BEING  THE  TENTH  ANNUAL  DISCOURSE 

BEFORE    THE 

MARYLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 

On  JANUARY  25th,  1855. 
BY  JOHN   G.   MORRIS,  D.  D. 


$riutelr  far  tjie  ^arqlanii  listaral  inritti|, 

BY     JOHN     MURPHY     &     CO. 


THERE  are  many  men  who  have  acted  conspicu- 
ous parts  in  scenes   of  thrilling  historical  interest, 
whose  names  are  little  known  to  general  readers, 
and  whose  surpassing  merits  are  not  properly  ap- 
preciated.    They  have  been  either  lost  in  the  more 
refulgent  light  of  brighter  luminaries,  or  have  been 
5      purposely  over-looked    by  cotemporaneous  histori- 
2°      ans.     Fellow  laborers  in  the  same  field  of  investiga- 
tion, who  have  left  records  of  their  own  operations, 
•3      may  have  from  envy  or  interested  selfishness,  dis- 
w      regarded  their  claims  to  distinction  or  only  casually 
g      mentioned   their  names   as  associated  with  them- 
selves.    Thus  often,  real  merit  in  science,  literature 
anfl  art,  is  depreciated,  and  many  a  man,  on  the 
8     other  hand,  gains  credit  for  what  he  never  achieved, 
§     and  receives  a  reward  which   he  never  deserved. 
S     But   posterity  often   awards  to  a  man   the   honor 
ti     which  his  cotemporaries  have  denied  him.     All  his- 
"     tory  demonstrates  this  fact.     There  is  a  resurrec- 
tion of  genius,  which  had  long  been  buried  in  obli- 
vion.    Envy  and  detraction  may  dig  its  grave  and 
bury  it;  but  eventually  it  comes  forth  reanimate. 
It  was  not  dead ;  it  only  slept. 


45340 


•.-. 


Historians  and  poets  of  the  olden  time  speak  of 
various  statues,  and  other  works  executed  by  dis- 
tinguished artists  of  their  day,  which  then  attracted 
the  admiration  of  the  world  of  taste  and  refinement, 
but  most  of  them  with  even  the  names  of  the  artists 
also,  have  perished.  Now  and  then,  one  is  ex- 
humed from  amid  the  rubbish  of  some  ancient 
temple,  and  men  of  artistic  taste  and  knowledge 
recognize  it  as  the  long  lost  production  of  some 
celebrated  sculptor  of  antiquity.  It  may  be  muti- 
lated to  some  extent,  but  the  modern  artist  sets  to 
work  and  repairs  it.  He  endeavors  to  restore  it  to 
its  original  beauty  and  symmetry,  and  however  he 
may  fail,  yet  the  ancient  artist's  name  is  rescued 
from  oblivion,  and  posterity  awards  him  due  honor. 

Let  ours  be  the  task  of  bringing  out  from  unde- 
served obscurity,  a  man  famous  and  powerful  in 
his  day,  but  now  known  only  to  comparatively  few ; 
a  man  cotemporary  with  the  discovery  of  our  coun- 
try,— the  associate  and  assistant  of  Columbus, — the 
fellow  voyager  with  many  of  the  great  navigators 
of  that  period, — a  man  to  whom  his  too  ardent 
friends  have  attributed  the  discovery  of  this  conti- 
nent, but  whilst  he  does  not  deserve,  and  never 
claimed  that  distinction,  still  by  his  astronomical 
and  geographical  science,  far  in  advance  of  most 
men  of  his  generation,  as  well  as  by  his  superior 
skill  in  the  preparation  of  nautical  instruments  and 
charts,  contributed  much  to  the  splendid  geographi- 
cal discoveries  of  that  adventurous  age. 

We  allude  to  MARTIN  BEHAIM  of  Germany.  His 
name  is  not  as  familiar  to  us  as  those  of  Columbus, 
and  Vespucius,  Magellan,  and  de  Gama,  but  it  will 
be  shown  that  his  services  were  not  less  valuable, 


and  his  merits  not  less  commendable.  Probably 
exceeding  them  all  in  scientific  acquirements,  he 
not  less  deserves  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of 
mankind.  His  name  has  been  for  several  ages 
somewhat  obscured,  but  it  is  beginning  to  shine 
forth  in  its  original  lustre.  The  bright,  particular 
star  is  emerging  from  the  cloud  which  for  years  had 
partly  concealed  it,  and  it  now  again  holds  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  firmament  of  science.  Pro- 
fessor Ghillany  of  Nurnberg,  of  all  others,  deserves 
most  credit  for  resuscitating  the  name  of  Behaim, 
and  to  his  magnificent  work  on  this  subject,  all 
future  historians  and  biographers  must  go  for  full 
and  authentic  information. 

The  Historical  Society  of  Maryland  does  not 
confine  its  researches  exclusively  to  the  history  of 
our  own  State,  but  extends  them  to  other  lands 
and  other  ages ;  and  hence  it  will  not  be  thought 
improper  to  introduce  a  subject  foreign  to  our  own 
land  and  age. 

Before  we  enter  more  particularly  on  our  specific 
subject,  we  shall  dwell  for  a  few  minutes  on  some 
facts  of  great  historical  interest  closely  connected 
with  it. 

The  whole  history  of  the  discovery  of  our  country 
is  full  of  interest.  We  do  not  allude  merely  to  the 
adventurous  daring,  the  appalling  sufferings,  the  un- 
conquerable perseverance,  the  lion  hearted  energy 
of  the  men  who  achieved  it,  all  of  which  have  been 
so  graphically  described  by  historians,  and  by  none 
so  well  as  by  our  own  illustrious  countryman,  Mr. 
Irving,  but  we  allude  to  the  scientific  results  of 
those  various  expeditions,  and  we  shall  confine  our- 
selves for  the  present  more  particularly  to  some  of 


6 

the  maps  and  charts,  which  these  bold  adventurers 
prepared.  It  will  be  seen  that  whilst  they  are  ex- 
ceedingly imperfect  and  erroneous  in  many  respects, 
yet  they  are  objects  of  deep  interest  to  men  who 
study  the  early  history  of  our  continent. 

To  Humboldt  we  are  indebted  for  the  publication 
of  the  earliest  pen  and  ink  map  of  America,  extant. 
There  is  but  one  copy  of  the  original  known,  and 
that  belongs  to  the  valuable  collection  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Baron  Walckanaer  of  Paris,  where,  in 
1832,  Humboldt  first  discovered  its  real  character, 
and  its  real  author.  It  had  until  then  been  regarded 
as  a  Portuguese  map  of  the  world  of  an  unknown 
age.  It  is  a  map  of  the  world  by  Juan  de  la  Cosa, 
(also  called  Juan  Biscaino,)  which  he  drew  in  the 
year  1500,  i.  e.  six  years  before  the  death  of  Colum- 
bus. It  was  a  precious  discovery  to  such  a  man  as 
Humboldt,  and  he  had  the  most  important  sections 
of  it  engraved  on  three  sheets.  It  bears  the  inscrip- 
tion, Juan  de  la  Cosa  la  fizo  en  el  Puerto  de  Ste. 
Maria  en  ano  1500.  This  inscription  stands  under 
a  small  colored  picture,  representing  the  great 
Christopher  wading  through  the  sea,  and  bearing 
on  his  shoulders  the  infant  Christ,  carrying  a  globe 
in  his  right  hand,  a  significant  allusion  to  Christo- 
pher (Christ  bearing)  Columbus,  and  expressive 
also  of  the  hope  of  the  spread  of  Christianity  which 
the  discovery  of  this  continent  (Aug.  1,  1498)  ex- 
cited. Juan  de  la  Cosa,  the  draughtsman  of  the 
map,  was  the  associate  of  Columbus  on  his  second 
expedition,  which  continued  from  September  25, 
1493,  to  June  11,  1496.  He  was  connected  with 
five  expeditions,  in  two  of  which  he  was  commander. 
He  must  have  been  a  man  of  great  nautical  experi- 


ence  and  science,  and  perhaps  of  some  presumption 
too,  for  in  the  evidence  in  a  trial  growing  out  of  the 
operations  of  Columbus,  it  is  said  by  one  of  the 
witnesses,  that  Christopher  Columbus,  who  was 
usually  styled  admiral,  complained  of  Juan  de  la 
Cosa  "  for  going  about  and  claiming  that  he  knew 
more  than  he,  the  admiral  himself." 

That  section  of  the  map  most  interesting  to  us, 
represents  in  tolerably  exact  configuration,  but  too 
far  north  for  the  greater  and  less  Antilles,  the  north- 
ern coast  of  South  America,  also  the  eastern  coast 
on  which  the  mouths  of  the  Orinoco  and  Amazon 
rivers  are  laid  down.  A  coast  line  without  any 
name  from  Cabo  de  la  Vela  to  the  extreme  north, 
connects  Venezuela  with  Labrador.  There  is 
nothing  on  the  map  to  show  that  he  had  any  idea 
of  the  outline  of  the  coast  from  Puerto  de  Mosqui- 
tos  on  the  western  end  of  the  isthmus  of  Panama 
to  Honduras,  a  part  of  the  coast  first  discovered  by 
Columbus  on  his  fourth  and  last  expedition,  (from 
May,  1502  to  November,  1504.)  He  had  no  con- 
ception of  the  configuration  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
which  Cortez  first  navigated  in  1519,  though  the 
existence  of  the  coast  of  Mexico  was  made  known 
at  an  earlier  period  by  the  natives  of  Cuba:  nor  is 
the  coast  of  the  United  States  of  North  America 
distinctly  designated,  though  Sebastian  Cabot  on 
his  second  expedition,  sailed  along  the  whole  coast 
from  Newfoundland  to  Florida,  in  1498.  Northerly 
in  a  mer  discubrierta  per  Ingleses,  N.  E.  of  Cuba, 
the  map  gives  the  discoveries  of  English  navigators 
on  a  coast  that  runs  from  east  to  west.  The  coast 
here  represented  is  probably  that  extending  along 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  opposite  the  present 


8 

Island  of  Anticosta.  The  isle  of  Verde,  N.  E.  of 
Cuba  d'Ingleterre  is  probably  Newfoundland.  The 
coast  which  abruptly  turns  to  the  north,  extending 
only  to  70°  latitude,  and  reaching  so  far  east  as  to 
embrace  the  Islands  of  Trierland,  is  most  probably 
the  present  Iceland. 

This  map  contains  no  positive  allusion  to  the  ear- 
lier discovery  of  the  continent  of  America  on  the 
coast  of  Labrador,  by  John  and  Sabastian  Cabot, 
between  latitude  56  and  58,  on  June  24,  1497,  thir- 
teen months  before  the  discovery  of  the  continent 
of  South  America,  at  the  eastern  part  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Camana  by  Columbus.  It  is  very  likely 
that  de  la  Cosa  knew  it,  but  why  he  did  not  state 
it,  is  not  known. 

This  is  the  proper  place  to  remark  that  the  so 
styled  first  discoveries  of  the  continent  of  North 
America  by  the  Cabots,  and  of  South  America  by 
Columbus,  should  be  designated  only  as  rediscov- 
eries. About  500  years  before  that  period,  (A.  D. 
1000,)  Leif,  the  son  of  Erek  the  Red,  the  Scan- 
dinavian, landed  on  the  continent  in  Massachusetts, 
which  was  a  part  of  Vinland,  which  name  the  Scan- 
dinavians gave  to  the  coast  between  Boston  and 
New  York.  According  to  the  oldest  tradition  and 
Icelandic  record,  even  the  southern  coast  between 
Virginia  and  Florida,  was  already  described  under 
the  name  of  the  White  man's  Land,  or  Great  Ice- 
land. Intercourse  subsisted  between  Greenland 
and  New  Scotland  (Maryland)  until  1347;  between 
Greenland  and  Bergen,  in  Norway,  until  1484,  that 
is,  until  seven  years  after  Columbus  had  visited 
Iceland. 


9 

All  the  original  maps  of  Columbus  and  Vespucius 
are  lost,  so  that  this  one  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa  is  to 
be  regarded  as  the  oldest  extant.  Until  it  was  dis- 
covered and  published  by  Humboldt  in  1832,  two  in 
the  military  library  at  Weimar,  of  the  years  1527 
and  J529,  were  considered  the  most  ancient,  but 
they  are  twenty-one  and  twenty-three  years  of  more 
recent  date  than  the  death  of  Columbus  in  1506. 

The  first  engraved  map  of  portions  of  the  new 
continent,  appears  in  the  Roman  edition  of  Ptolemy 
of  1508,  but  it  does  not  contain  the  name  America. 
This  name  appears  in  no  edition  of  Ptolemy  before 
1522,  but  it  does  appear  in  some  other  works  and 
maps  published  ten  or  twelve  years  before  that 
period,  as  shall  presently  be  shown. 

Another  question  of  interest  in  this  connexion  is, 
what  is  the  origin  of  the  name  America,  and  who 
gave  that  name  to  the  continent  ?  This  is  an  inter- 
esting enquiry.  We  all  think  it  should  have  been 
called  Columbia,  but  how  came  it  to  be  baptized 
America  ?  The  solution  will  show  how  the  single 

~ 

suggestion  of  one  man  made  even  in  error,  can  for- 
ever determine  the  designation  of  continents. 

Columbus  died  in  Valadolid  on  20th  May,  1506, 
and  one  year  afterwards  there  appeared  an  anony- 
mous work  in  Latin,  entitled  An  Introduction  to 
Cosmography.  It  was  published  in  the  small  city 
of  St.  Die,  in  the  Vosges  mountains  of  Lorraine, 
and  it  contains  the  proposition  to  give  the  name  of 
America  to  the  new  world,  "in  honor  of  its  dis- 
coverer, Amerigo  Vespucci." 

A  second  edition  of  this  work  appeared  in  1509, 
in  which  the  author  gives  his  name  as  Martinus 
Ilacomylus.  Two  other  editions  appeared  in  Venice 


10 

in  1535  and  1554.  Notwithstanding  its  frequent 
publication,  this  book  has  now  become  so  rare  that 
in  1832  there  was  but  one  copy  in  Paris,  and  that 
not  even  in  the  Royal  library.  Who  was  this 
Ilacomylus  who  first  gave  the  name  America  to  the 
new  world  ?  For  more  than  300  years  it  was  un- 
certain, and  according  to  Navarette,  the  great  geo- 
grapher, he  was  regarded  as  a  Hungarian,  but  Hum- 
boldt  has  irrefutably  proved  that  he  was  a  German, 
a  teacher  of  geography  at  the  gymnasium  in  St.  Die, 
and  a  native  of  Freiburg  in  Breisgan.  His  German 
name  was  Martin  Waldseemiiller  (or  Waltzemiiller.) 
We  are  indebted  then  to  a  German  lecturer  on 
geography  in  an  obscure  town  in  the  Vosgian  moun- 
tains, for  this  name. 

The  settlement  of  this  question  is  important  as 
regards  the  personal  character  of  Vespucci.  Not  a 
few  influential  historians  have  charged  him  with 
assuming  the  name  himself,  and  inserting  it  on  maps 
of  the  new  discovered  countries,  which  he  as  pilot 
major  had  executed  in  Seville.  This  name  was 
first  proposed  in  1507,  and  he  was  not  appointed 
pilot  major  until  1508.  Besides,  the  idea  of  having 
discovered  a  new  world,  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  Vespucci,  nor  in  that  of  Columbus.  Both 
died  in  the  full  conviction  of  having  discovered  parts 
of  Asia,  before  unknown.  Only  four  years  before 
his  death,  Columbus  writes  to  Pope  Alexander  VI : 
"  I  have  taken  possession  of  1400  islands,  and  have 
discovered  333  leagues  of  the  continent  of  Asia." 
Vespucci  died  February  22,  1512,  (not  in  1508  as 
Robertson  asserts,  and  not  in  1516  as  Bandini  and 
Tiraboschi  maintain,)  without  ever  having  heard  of 
the  honor  which  the  geographers  had  conferred  on 


11 

his  name.  The  name  did  not  appear  on  any  maps 
until  eight  years  after  his  death.  It  is  remarkable, 
that  Ferdinand  Columbus,  who  as  the  biographer 
of  his  illustrious  father,  most  strenuously  vindicates 
his  character  and  reputation  against  all  attacks,  and 
whose  work  was  finished  only  in  1533,  never  ex- 
presses himself  unfavorably  of  Vespucci,  and  does 
not  even  mention  the  name  "  America,"  although  it 
was  at  that  time  already  extensively  known.  But 
if  this  son,  so  jealous  of  his  father's  fame,  had  at  all 
suspected  Vespucci  of  arrogating  claims  to  distinc- 
tion to  which  his  own  father  was  entitled,  he  would 
have  denounced  him  severely,  as  he  did  all  others 
who  tried  to  tarnish  the  reputation  of  the  great 
navigator. 

Thus  the  admiration  which  a  German  geographer 
entertained  for  Amerigo  Vespucci,  excited  by  read- 
ing his  correspondence  with  Renatus  of  Lorraine, 
was  really  the  occasion  of  giving  the  name  of 
America  to  a  large  portion  of  the  globe. 

Now,  let  us  proceed  to  the  illustration  of  our  spe- 
cial theme ;  the  history  of  Martin  Behaim.  Ger- 
many for  ages,  has  been  the  birth  place  of  genius. 
Her  history  is  full  of  heroic  deeds  in  every  depart- 
ment of  human  effort.  It  is  the  land  of  science,  of 
art,  of  arms  and  of  song.  The  pre-eminence  of 
Germany  in  the  highest  grades  of  intellectual  exer- 
tion, and  her  amazing  progress  in  every  art  that  can 
ennoble  mankind,  have  elicited  the  applause  of  all 
who  can  be  charmed  by  poetry,  or  instructed  by 
philosophy.  Though  other  lands  have  produced  a 
more  brilliant  array  of  great  navigators  and  discov- 
erers of  unknown  countries,  yet  it  is  not  the  mere 
mariner  or  commander  of  an  expedition,  who  de- 


12 

serves  the  entire  credit  of  discoveries.  It  is  true, 
he  incurs  the  risk,  he  endures  the  labor,  he  suffers 
the  exposure  and  has  the  honor  of  first  seeing  the 
long  sought  for  land,  but  it  is  the  astronomer  on 
board  mapping  the  heavens,  the  geographer  draw- 
ing his  charts,  the  meteorologist  observing  the  tem- 
perature, the  hydrogapher  watching  the  tides,  the 
artizan  making  and  manipulating  the  nautical  instru- 
ments, the  philosopher  studying  all  the  phenomena 
occurring  in  nature — it  is  he  who  eminently  deserves 
a  large  share  of  the  honors  of  discovery,  for  it  is  by 
the  aid  of  his  labors  that  the  mariner  is  led  to  his 
brilliant  results.  Many  a  splendid  geographical  dis- 
covery has  been  made  at  sea,  by  the  help  of  mathe- 
matical and  artistic  labor  executed  ashore.  It  was 
German  astronomers,  who  by  their  calculations  and 
tables,  enabled  the  seafaring  nations  of  that  day  to 
accomplish  many  of  their  brilliant  exploits  in  the 
field  of  geographical  discovery.  Behaim  was  mari- 
ner, astronomer,  geographer,  artist  and  philosopher, 
all  combined,  and  was  publicly  acknowledged  by  the 
Emperor  Maximilian,  to  be  the  most  extensively 
travelled  citizen  of  the  German  empire. 

His  family  was  of  Bohemian  origin,  which  immi- 
grated to  Nurnberg  on  account  of  religious  persecu- 
tion about  A.  D.  916.  It  was  afterwards  exalted 
to  the  rank  of  the  patricians  of  that  famous  city,  a 
subordinate  degree  of  nobility  in  former  times  highly 
prized. 

Our  hero  was  born  in  1459,  two  or  three  years 
later  than  Columbus.  We  possess  no  records  of 
his  early  life,  but  his  father  who  was  an  enterprizing 
and  wealthy  merchant,  had  his  son  educated  in  the 
highest  schools.  The  imperial  city  of  Nurnberg 


13 

was  distinguished  for  its  enterprizing,  thrifty  and 
pious  spirit,  and  all  the  sons  of  those  who  could 
afford  it,  received  a  scientific  education.  The  mer- 
chants of  Nurnberg  of  that  day,  and  even  of  earlier 
times,  established  commercial  relations  all  over 
Europe,  where  there  was  a  prospect  of  gain,  and 
even  in  the  East  Indies,  a  few  years  after  the  dis- 
covery of  the  passage  by  the  way  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  The  sons  of  the  patricians  who  were 
the  most  distinguished  merchants  of  the  city,  were 
obliged  to  learn  the  languages  of  Europe,  and  to 
devote  themselves  strictly  to  commercial  pursuits 
and  studies.  After  their  apprenticeship,  they  were 
sent  to  other  countries  to  serve  as  clerks  or  agents 
of  their  fathers,  and  in  this  capacity  Martin  Behaim, 
quite  a  young  man,  appears  in  the  Netherlands. 

But  what  is  particularly  interesting  to  us  is  the 
relation  which  young  Behaim  held  to  Regiomon- 
tanus,  the  greatest  mathematician  and  astronomer 
of  that  day.  His  German  name  was  John  Miiller, 
but  in  conformity  to  the  custom  of  many  of  the 
learned  men  of  that  age,  he  latinized  his  name  from 
his  birth  place  Konigsberg  (Regismons.)  He  was 
born  in  1436,  and  died  in  Rome  in  1476,  in  the  40th 
year  of  his  age ;  after  having  run  a  splendid  scien- 
tific career  in  various  countries  in  Europe,  he 
settled  as  he  thought  finally  in  Nurnberg  in  1471, 
for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  his  philosophical 
pursuits,  but  at  the  end  of  1475,  Pope  Sixtus  IV 
appointed  him  bishop  of  Ratisbon,  and  called  him 
to  Rome  to  improve  the  calendar.  Unwillingly 
did  he  obey  this  call.  He  went  to  Rome  and  died 
a  year  afterwards.  This  was  a  convenient  way  of 
securing  the  services  of  a  learned  man, — conferring 


14 

on  him  the  bishopric  of  a  diocese,  which  he  never 
expected  to  see,  and  enjoining  duties  he  never  was 
expected  to  perform,  and  for  which  he  had  no  in- 
clination. But  in  this  way  the  Pope  succeeded  in 
drawing  the  mathematician  to  Rome,  which  any 
other  offer  might  have  failed  to  do. 

His  residence  in  Nurnberg  had  the  most  bene- 
ficial influence  on  the  scientific  improvement  of  the 
citizens.  It  was  at  that  time  a  sort  of  central  place, 
brought  into  close  contact  with  all  parts  of  Europe, 
by  the  commercial  relations  and  travels  of  its  mer- 
chants, through  whom  the  philosopher  held  scien- 
tific correspondence  with  the  learned  of  all  lands. 

His  influence  on  the  people  was  marked  and 
decisive.  His  studious  example  and  attractive  lec- 
tures created  a  zealous  interest  in  the  higher  mathe- 
matical sciences.  A  wealthy  citizen,  Bernard 
Walter,  purchased  printing  materials  at  his  own 
cost  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  the  works  of 
Regiomontanus,  and  the  same  liberal  patron  of 
science,  furnished  the  means  also  of  procuring 
mathematical  and  astronomical  instruments  for  the 
use  of  those  who  cultivated  these  branches.  The 
philosopher  also  on  his  own  account,  established  a 
manufactory,  in  which  with  his  own  hands,  he  made 
a  large  number  of  curious  arid  valuable  instruments. 
Some  of  these  are  preserved  to  this  day,  in  the  city 
library  of  Nurnberg,  where  so  many  interesting 
scientific  and  artistic  relics  of  the  bygone  ages  are 
to  be  seen. 

Geography  was  also  the  subject  of  his  ardent 
pursuit.  No  means  were  left  unemployed  to  gain  a 
knowledge  of  all  the  discoveries,  and  to  publish  them 
to  the  world.  He  was  in  constant  correspondence 


15 

with  many  of  the  philosophers  of  that  day,  and 
especially  with  Toscanelli,  the  famous  Florentine 
mathematician,  the  same  man  who  furnished  Colum- 
bus with  a  chart  on  which  was  marked  the  west- 
ward course  he  would  have  to  take  towards  the 
East  Indies. 

The  early  death  of  Regiomontanus  in  1476,  and 
in  the  fortieth  year  of  his  age,  left  many  of  his  works 
unfinished,  but  during  his  brief  career,  he  performed 
an  incredible  amount  of  scientific  labor.  He  con- 
tributed much  to  elevate  Nurnberg  to  as  high  a  de- 
gree of  celebrity  in  science  as  it  had  for  many  years 
before  enjoyed  in  commerce.  One  of  his  zealous 
eulogists  says  of  him,  "Nurnberg  attained  to  such 
an  exalted  distinction  in  mathematical  studies, 
through  the  influence  of  Regiomontanus,  that  Taren- 
tum  could  not  more  justly  boast  of  Archytas,  nor 
Syracuse  of  Archimedes,  nor  Byzantium  of  Pro- 
clus,  nor  Alexandria  of  Ctesibius,  than  Nurnberg  of 
Regiomontanus." 

During  the  residence  of  this  distinguished  philo- 
sopher in  Nurnberg,  (1471-1475,)  our  hero,  Martin 
Behaim,  was  from  12  to  16  years  of  age,  just  at  that 
period  of  life  when  a  tendency  to  higher  studies  is 
developed.  He  was  of  a  family  of  the  first  rank, 
which  always  had  access  to  the  philosopher's  work- 
rooms and  study,  and  we  may  well  presume  that 
this  ardent  young  man,  who  a  few  years  later  be- 
came celebrated  as  a  geographer  and  astronomer, 
availed  himself  of  the  instructions  of  Regiomon- 

~ 

tanus.  The  Portuguese  writers  say,  that  Behaim 
boasted  of  having  been  a  pupil  of  Regiomon- 
tanus. Though  he  was  destined  to  the  pursuit  of 
trade  by  his  parents,  yet  like  many  a  commercial 


16 

apprentice  since  that  time,  his  expanding  mind  could 
not  be  bound  down  to  the  ledger,  the  sales-room  or 
manufactory,  but  soared  aloft  to  subjects  of  higher 
intellectual  interest.  From  the  counting-room,  he 
would  go  to  his  astronomical  studies,  impatient  for 
the  hour  of  release  from  what  he  called  the  drud- 
gery of  business.  The  deep  hours  of  the  night  were 
spent  in  severe  intellectual  toil,  whilst  most  of  the 
other  young  men  of  Nurnberg  were  engaged  in 
frivolous  and  perhaps  vicious  amusements.  But 
Behaim's  memory  lives,  and  they  are  forgotten  or 
were  never  known.  He  contributed  to  the  increase 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men — they  aimed 
only  at  the  increase  of  gold,  and  the  preservation  of 
it  among  themselves.  But  still,  he  was  compelled 
to  make  business  his  chief  employment,  and  the 
death  of  his  father  in  1474,  only  imposed  heavier 
responsibilities  on  him.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  he 
was  a  very  successful  merchant,  unless  he  had  a 
more  active  partner  than  himself,  for  a  man  whose 
mind  is  constantly  employed  about  maps,  charts, 
globes,  heavenly  bodies  and  mathematical  instru- 
ments, can  hardly  be  expected  to  be  fit  for  anything 
else.  He  who  dwells  among  the  stars,  finds  it  hard 
to  come  down  among  the  common  places  of  earth. 
Astronomy  and  traffic  in  the  "  sugar  and  cotton 
line  "  do  not  exactly  suit  together.  Yet  from  1475 
to  1479,  we  find  Behairn  in  Mechlin,  Antwerp  and 
Frankfort,  apparently  engaged  in  mercantile  trans- 
actions, and  all  the  while  exhibiting  the  most  affec- 
tionate interest  for  his  mother,  as  his  published  cor- 
respondence shows.  Still  it  is  very  probable  that 
science  occupied  as  much  or  more  of  his  attention 
than  commerce.  He  every  where  sought  the  society 


17 

of  learned  astronomers,  and  we  can  easily  conceive 
how  a  man  of  his  tastes  and  inclinations  would 
spend  his  time  in  the  intervals  of  business,  or  even 
during  some  of  the  hours  which  other  more  sys- 
tematic men  would  devote  to  it.  All  studious  men 
know  how  easy  it  is  to  find  excuses  to  prosecute  a 
favorite  branch,  even  amid  the  calls  of  pressing  pro- 
fessional engagements.  Thus  it  was  with  Behairn  ; 
business  was  often  compelled  to  yield  to  science. 
Though  his  pecuniary  interests  may  have  suffered, 
yet  his  reputation  was  advancing  every  day.  The 
merchant  astronomer  who  may  not  have  been  suc- 
cessful on  change  at  Antwerp  or  Frankfort,  was  in 
intimate  intercourse  with  another,  and  a  very  differ- 
ent class  of  men  from  that  which  congregates  in  the 
busy  mart.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  at  this  time 
he  was  not  over  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  yet  his 
fame  had  gone  beyond  the  boundaries  of  his  native 
land,  and  the  government  of  Portugal,  at  that  period, 
extensively  engaged  in  maritime  pursuits,  perhaps 
more  than  any  other,  employed  Behaim  in  her 
marine  service.  We  now  lose  sight  of  him  in  Ger- 
many for  eleven  years,  (1479-1491.)  He  did  not 
visit  his  native  city  until  1491,  when  he  returned  for  a 
short  period,  laden  with  honors  and  enjoying  a  world 
wide  reputation  as  cosmographer  and  navigator. 
The  young  merchant  becomes  an  adventurous  sailor 
and  explorer,  and  makes  invaluable  contributions  to 
geographical  knowledge. 

He  was  not  over  twenty  years  of  age  (1480)  when 
we  find  him  a  member  of  a  committee  appointed  by 
King  John  of  Portugal,  for  the  promotion  of  nauti- 
cal science.  This  circumstance  alone  stamps  the 
scientific  character  of  the  man.  One  so  young,  and 


a  foreigner  too,  would  not  have  been  elevated  to 

o  • 

such  a  position,  if  he  had  not  already  made  extra- 
ordinary progress  in  mathematical  knowledge.  The 
pursuits  of  commerce  brought  him  to  Lisbon,  for  the 
merchants  of  Nurnberg  held  relations  with  most  of 
the  cities  of  southern  Europe.  But  there  is  reason 
to  believe  that  the  interests  of  science  too,  had  no 
small  influence  in  determining  his  visit  to  the  south. 
At  that  early  day,  the  Germans  seemed  to  have 
been  the  most  favored  of  all  foreigners  in  Portugal. 
Jerome  Munzer,  a  great  German  traveller  of  those 
days  (1494-95)  informs  us  that  he  was  honored  by 
invitations  to  the  table  of  King  John  four  times. 
He  remarks  that  on  his  travels  through  the  penin- 
sula, he  encountered  rnany  German  settlers  as 
clergymen,  merchants,  artists,  printers  and  artille- 
rists. Even  in  Granada,  which  had  been  rescued 
from  the  Moors  only  three  years  before,  and  as  yet 
inhabited  by  them,  he  found  German  printers.  King 
Alphonsus  who  reigned  from  1448-81,  had  Ger- 
mans, particularly  as  artillerists,  in  his  service  on 
his  marine  expeditions,  and  elevated  one  of  them  to 
the  command  of  all  the  Portuguese  rifle  corps.  As 
German  powder  was  much  sought  after,  and  Alphon- 
sus admitted  all  warlike  instruments  and  materials 
into  his  country  free  of  duty,  the  Nurnbergers 
naturally  took  advantage  of  this  favorable  permit. 
Even  as  early  as  1428,  a  German  (Lambert  von 
Horgon)  immigrated  into  Portugal  with  his  family, 
and  received  from  King  John  a  section  of  land  as  a 
present,  on  condition  of  inducing  German  colonists 
to  come  and  cultivate  it.  The  Germans  in  Lisbon 
who  were  in  the  service  of  the  government  as 
marines  or  soldiers,  enjoyed  special  privileges,  and 


19 

established   a   hospital   in   Lisbon  for   themselves. 
The  German  Hanseatic  cities  were  not  inactive  in 
regard  to  Portuguese  voyages  of  discovery ;  they 
supplied  ships  and  provisions,  and  it  is  likely,  loaned 
money  as  well  as  furnished  marines ;  the  first  print- 
ers in  Portugal  were  Germans.    One  of  them,  Valen- 
tine Ferdinand,  was  in  1503  appointed  shield-bearer 
to  Queen  Leonora,  wife  of  John  II.     It  was  he  who 
translated  the  travels   of  Marco  Polo  into  Portu- 
guese.    King  Manuel  valued  the  art  of  printing  so 
highly  that  he  invited  the  German  printer,  Jacob 
Cromberger,  to  Portugal,  elevated  him  to  the  rank 
of  the  nobility,  and  issued  a  decree  granting  to  all 
who  pursued  the  "  blessed  art "  in  Portugal,  equal 
rights  with   the  nobility  of  the  royal  house.     Not 
only  were  the  men  of  Germany  in  great  demand  in 
Portugal   and   other    southern   countries,  but   her 
manufactures  also.     Nurnberg,  though  lying  far  in 
the   interior,   was  particularly   famous   among   the 
Portuguese  for  the  cultivation  of  those  sciences  and 
the  manufacture  of  those  instruments  which  related 
to   navigation.     Compasses  were,  at  that  time,  al- 
most exclusively  manufactured  at  Nurnberg;   the 
compass  makers  were  so  numerous  that  in  1510, 
they  united  themselves  into  a  special  guild.     The 
celebrated  ephemerides  of  Regiomontanus  first  ap- 
peared in  Nurnberg  in  1473,  and  these  were  much 
sought  after   by  navigators.      Thus  Germany  was 
enterprizing  in  those  days.     German  emigrants  were 
found  every  where  in  southern  Europe,  and  we  have 
some   conception    of  what  German   emigration   is 
since  the  discovery  of  this  country. 

The  duties  of  the  committee  appointed  by  King 
John,  and  of  which  young  Behaim  was  a  member, 
3 


20 

were  to  simplify  nautical  instruments,  to  discover 
new  ones,  and  to  diffuse  mathematical  and  astro- 
nomical knowledge  among  the  Portuguese.  It  was 
composed  of  the  most  distinguished  mathematicians 
of  the  country,  and  consisted  of  five  members,  Jose 
and  Rodrigo,  physicians  to  the  King,  Martin  Be- 
haim,  the  bishop  Ceuta,  Diogo  Ortiz  and  the  bishop 
of  Viseu  Ca^adilha.  Humboldt  says,  that  these 
two  last  are  but  one  person,  with  the  two  different 
names.  One  of  them,  Jose,  was  an  Israelite. 

The  King  was  particularly  desirous  that  the  com- 
mittee should  discover  a  method  by  which  navigators 
who  had  lost  sight  of  the  coast,  might  find  their 
way,  for  though  the  compass  gave  them  the  direc- 
tion in  which  they  should  steer,  yet  they  were 
uncertain  of  their  latitude.  He  directed  Behaim 
particularly,  in  consultation  with  the  two  physicians, 
to  discover  some  means  whereby  mariners  could 
determine  their  exact  position  at  sea.  They  dis- 
covered the  art  of  sailing  by  the  sun's  height — they 
calculated  declination  tables  for  the  sun,  and  applied 
the  astrolabe  to  the  purposes  of  navigation.  A 
similar  instrument  was  known  to  the  Portuguese 
before  Behaim's  time,  but  it  had  been  used  only  by 
astronomers.  As  early  as  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  there  was  an  instrument  used  on  the  Casti- 
lian  ships  by  which  the  hour  of  the  night  could  be 
determined  at  sea  by  the  stars,  but  at  the  same  time, 
the  Portuguese  do  not  appear  to  have  used  the 
astrolabe  at  sea,  until  this  committee  proposed  by 
it  to  measure  the  height  of  the  sun.  The  chief  im- 
provement, made  by  Behaim  in  the  instrument,  was 
the  substitution  of  brass  for  the  coarse  material  of 
wood,  and  instead  of  having  it  placed  on  a  tripod 


and  thus  be  subject  to  the  ship's  motion,  he  attached 
it  to  the  mast,  and  by  a  proper  arrangement  made 
it  maintain  a  vertical  position. 

The  Portuguese  writers  give  Behaini  the  credit 
of  having  contributed  most  towards  the  improve- 
ment and  application  of  the  astrolabe.  He  had 
been  educated  in  the  city  from  which  the  Pope  had 
called  Regiomontanus  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of 
improving  the  Calendar — he  had  even  been  a  pupil 
of  the  great  philosopher  himself.  It  was  this,  that 
procured  him  a  place  in  the  committee  and  gave 
him  special  influence.  He  had  seen  these  instru- 
ments in  the  workshop  of  his  teacher,  which  he 
recommended  to  the  Portuguese,  and  was  therefore 
well  qualified,  young  as  he  was,  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  his  office.  Columbus,  Vasco  de  Gama, 
Cabot,  Magellan  and  others  used  these  instruments, 
and  it  was  in  this  way  the  Germans  exerted  no  small 
influence  on  the  voyages  of  discovery  of  those  days. 
If  many  of  them  did  not  personally  share  in  the 
dangers  and  privations  of  these  adventures,  yet  it 
was  John  Regiomontanus  and  other  Germans  who 
through  their  nautical  instruments  and  astronomical 
tables,  enabled  maritime  nations  to  trust  themselves 
securely  to  unknown  seas. 

We  now  foljow  Behaim  on  his  first  voyage  as  a 
navigator.  Soon  after  discovering  the  application 
of  the  astrolabe  to  the  measurement  of  distance  by 
the  sun's  height,  he  had  an  opportunity  of  practically 
applying  it.  He  was  appointed  by  King  John, 
astronomer  and  cosmographer  to  the  expedition 
fitted  out  to  prosecute  further  discoveries  on  the 
African  coast,  under  the  command  of  Diogo  Cao. 
The  farther  these  voyages  extended,  the  more  cus- 


22 

ternary  it  became  to  send  out  a  practical  astronomer 
who  understood  the  use  of  the  astrolabe,  the  quad- 
rant and  the  tables  calculated  by  Regiomontanus. 
Occasionally  the  command  of  a  ship  was  entrusted 
to  the  astronomer,  as  appears  to  have  been  the  case 
with  Behaim,  and  most  certainly  was  with  Americo 
Vespucci.  On  the  globe  which  Behaim  afterwards 
constructed,  he  gave  short  memoranda  of  the  results 
of  the  expedition  at  various  places.  This  expedition 
sailed  in  1484,  and  was  absent  nineteen  months. 
The  most  southern  point  it  attained  was  Table  Bay, 
where  they  erected  a  stone  column  with  the  arms 
of  Portugal  inscribed  upon  it.  The  discoveries 
made  during  this  voyage  were  the  Prince's  Islands, 
and  St.  Thomas  near  the  equator,  and  this  was 
accomplished  by  the  aid  of  Behaim's  astrolabe,  which 
emboldened  navigators  to  sail  out  of  sight  of  land. 
Before  that,  islands  which  lay  far  from  the  coast, 
were  discovered  only  by  accident,  when  ships  were 
driven  towards  them  by  storms. 

After  his  return  from  this  voyage,  the  success  of 
which  owed  so  much  to  his  astronomical  science, 
Behaim  was  elevated  to  the  knighthood  of  the  order 
of  Christ  by  John  II.  The  King  himself  girded 
him  with  the  sword,  and  the  crown  Prince,  after- 
wards King  Manuel,  buckled  on  his  right  spur. 
The  ceremony  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the 
Queen  and  the  whole  court. 

Here  is  the  proper  place  to  notice  a  fact  which 
has  operated  unfavorably  on  the  character  of  Behaim 
and  has  raised  up  against  him  a  host  of  enemies, 
although  he  is  perfectly  innocent  and  has  been  drawn 
into  the  difficulty  by  injudicious  admirers.  It  is, 
that  he  came  to  America  before  Columbus,  and 


23 

hence  should  be  regarded  as  the  real  discoverer  of 
this  continent.  This  unfounded  claim  was  first  set 
up  by  John  Christopher  Wagenseil,  professor  of 
history  in  the  Nurnberg  University  of  Altdorf,  who 
flourished  between  J  665-1705.  This  man  who  was 
an  extensive  traveller — a  profound  jurist,  historian 
and  oriental  linguist,  enjoying  a  world  wide  reputa- 
tion and  receiving  from  crowned  heads  distinguished 
marks  of  favor  and  honor,  abused  his  exalted  posi- 
tion in  the  learned  world,  to  confer  a  distinction  on 
the  Behaim  family  to  which  they  made  no  claim 
whatever,  and  in  the  ground  of  which  probably 
Wagenseil  himself  had  no  confidence.  In  a  latin 
eulogy  which  he  delivered  in  1682,  in  honor  of  a 
relative  of  our  Behaim  who  had  rendered  valuable 
services  to  the  University  of  Altdorf,  the  orator  in 
the  language  of  fulsome  flattery  and  unmeasured 
adulation  so  common  in  that  day,  laments  grievously 
that  the  name  of  Behaim  as  the  discoverer  of 
America  had  not  been  properly  recognized  and 
honored  until  then,  and  appeals  as  proofs  that 
Behaim  had  gone  to  America  before  Columbus,  to 
two  Nurnberger  documents  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  the  city,  which  however  say  nothing  at  all  of  that 
which  Wagenseil  wished  to  show.  His  other  cita- 
tions merely  mention  Behaim  as  a  great  astronomer 
and  navigator  without  specifying  any  of  his  discove- 
ries. One  of  his  quotations  expresses  the  conjec- 
ture that  Behaim  might  have  suggested  the  idea 
of  a  western  continent  to  Columbus,  but  the  infer 
ence  is  too  bold,  that  therefore  Behaim  was  the 
discoverer  of  America.  Wagenseil  repeats  the 
assumption  in  his  Historia  Universalis,  which  had 
an  extensive  circulation  in  Germany,  and  this  idea 


24 

having  been  copied  into  other  works,  became 
almost  universally  prevalent  in  Germany  during  the 
last  century.  More  recent  investigations  and  refer- 
ences to  Portuguese  and  Spanish  documents  have 
reinstated  Columbus  into  his  rights,  and  as  formerly 
Behaim's  merits  were  exalted  above  measure,  men 
now  felt  inclined  to  depreciate  him  accordingly.  If 
we  dare  not  claim  honors  for  him  which  he  did  not 
deserve,  we  will  not  allow  him  to  be  deprived  of 
those  which  are  due  him.  Several  of  his  country- 
men in  the  United  States  have  maintained  the  same 
unfounded  position.  Mr.  Otto,  a  German  gentle- 
man of  New  York  in  1786,  addressed  to  Dr. 
Franklin  and  published  in  the  transactions  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  (1786,  II.  No.  35) 
a  memoir  on  the  discovery  of  America,  in  which  he 
maintains  the  priority  of  discovery  for  Behaim. 
More  recently,  a  writer  named  Loher,  in  a  history 
of  the  Germans  in  America,  published  in  Cincinnati 
in  1847,  takes  the  same  untenable  ground ;  whilst 
of  course,  we  cannot  sustain  these  writers,  yet  we 
cannot  allow  Behaim  to  be  robbed  of  this  merit, 
that  his  science  contributed  essentially  to  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  and  this  naturally  leads  us  to 
speak  of  his  relation  to  Columbus,  and  the  great 
event  which  distinguished  the  life  of  the  latter. 

The  Spanish  historian  Herrera  affirms  (dec.  1, 
lib.  1,  cap.  2,)  that  Columbus  was  established  in  the 
grounds  which  determined  him  to  seek  a  marine 
way  to  East  India  by  sailing  west,  by  his  friend  the 
Portuguese  Martin  de  Bohemia  of  the  Island  of 
Fayal,  who  was  a  learned  cosmographer.  The 
Dutch  compiler  and  publisher  of  a  large  collection 
of  voyages  and  travels,  Peter  Van  der  Aa  improves 


25 

somewhat  on  Herrera  and  makes  Behaim  a  native 
of  Fayal  and  a  Portuguese.  Robertson,  in  his 
History  of  America,  follows  Van  der  Aa,  and  if 
the  City  of  Nurnberg  did  not  possess  his  globe  and 
other  documents  establishing  his  birth  place,  Martin 
Behaim  would  probably  flourish  in  history  as  a  Por- 
tuguese, or  at  least  as  a  Bohemian  immigrant  to 
Portugal. 

Let  us  investigate  the  correctness  of  this  very 
credible  observation  of  the  Spanish  historian,  that 
Columbus  was  confirmed  in  his  views  and  conjec- 
tures by  Behaim. 

Columbus  began  his  nautical  life  in  his  18th  year, 
and  about  the  year  1470  went  to  Portugal  in  pur- 
suit of  employment.  Humboldt  assumes  that  it 
was  1477.  The  enterprises  of  the  Portuguese  at 
that  time  attracted  many  sea-faring  men  to  their 
country,  particularly  from  Italy,  and  they  were  very 
cheerfully  received.  In  Portugal,  he  married  Fe- 
lipa,  the  daughter  of  Bartolomeo  Monnio  de  Pales- 
trello.  This  Palestrello  was  an  Italian  mariner, 
who,  in  the  service  of  Portugal,  conducted  a  colony 
to  Porto  Santo,  one  of  the  Canaries,  and  was  ap- 
pointed by  Prince  Henry,  governor  of  this  island. 
He  was  already  dead  when  Columbus  married  the 
daughter,  who  lived  with  her  mother  in  straightened 
circumstances,  in  Lisbon.  The  widow,  whom  Co- 
lumbus took  into  his  own  family,  gave  him  all  the 
charts  and  journals  of  her  deceased  husband.  By 
the  study  of  these  charts,  most  probably  not  before 
1477,  he  conceived  the  plan  of  finding  the  way  to 
the  East  Indies  by  going  westward.  In  this  year 
he  sought  the  advice  of  Toscanelli,  the  celebrated 
astronomer  of  Florence,  to  whom  is  ascribed  the 


26 

credit  of  first  conceiving  the  idea  of  sailing  west- 
ward to  the  East  Indies.  His  correspondence  with 
Columbus  on  this  subject,  is  exceedingly  interesting. 
The  latter  made  occasional  voyages  in  Portuguese 
ships  to  Guinea,  and  when  he  was  at  home  he  ob- 
tained a  meagre  support  for  his  family  by  drawing 
charts,  in  which  he  also  instructed  his  brother  Bar- 
tolomeo.  His  wife's  sister  was  married  to  Pedro 
Correa,  who  was  governor  of  the  island  of  Porto 
Santo.  Columbus,  for  a  season,  resided  on  this 
island,  where  his  son  Diego  was  born,  but  he  soon 
returned  to  Portugal.  Probably,  in  1480,  he  made 
a  voyage  to  Iceland. 

After  the  committee,  of  which  we  have  spoken 
above,  had  furnished  to  navigators  an  improved  as- 
trolabe, Columbus  conceived  himself  sufficiently 
armed  to  venture  out  into  the  unknown  sea,  and 
soon  after  this  discovery  he  made  propositions  to 
the  Court  of  Portugal,  but  he  met  with  no  favor. 
When  his  wife  died,  he  left  Portugal,  towards  the 
end  of  1484,  much  disheartened  and  in  straightened 
financial  circumstances.  It  is  uncertain  whether 
he  went  to  Genoa  or  where  he  spent  the  year  1485; 
in  1486  he  was  in  Spain,  extremely  destitute,  where 
he  supported  himself  poorly  by  drawing  maps.  His 
attempts  to  secure  confidence  in  his  enterprize,  at 
the  Court  of  Spain,  were  fruitless,  and  in  1491  he 
received  a  final  and  peremptory  refusal.  In  the  same 
year  he  was  invited  by  King  John  II,  of  Portugal, 
to  return  to  Lisbon,  but  held  back  by  a  tender  rela- 
tion to  Donna  Beatrice  Henriquenz,  in  Cordova,  he 
made  a  last  attempt  at  the  Court  of  Spain,  in  which 
he  was  supported  by  a  friend.  He  at  last  succeeded 
in  effecting  a  contract,  which  was  signed  April  18th, 


27 

1492.  On  August  3d,  1492,  he  enters  on  his  first 
voyage. 

If  we  compare  this  brief  sketch  of  the  circum- 
stances of  Columbus  in  Portugal,  with  the  history 
of  Behaim,  we  shall  discover,  in  several  respects,  a 
peculiar  affinity  between  the  destinies  of  both  men. 
Both  came  to  Portugal  from  foreign  countries — both 
were  engaged  in  drawing  maps  and  charts,  which  of 
course  required  a  constant  examination  of  all  new 
discoveries,  and  frequent  intercourse  with  mariners. 
We  are  not  sure  whether  Behaim  pursued  this  occu- 
pation as  a  means  of  livelihood ;  he  was  not  poor  as 
Columbus  was,  but  his  favorite  pursuits  naturally 
led  him  to  employ  much  of  his  time  in  this  occupa- 
tion. Columbus  married  the  daughter  of  a  foreigner, 
who  was  governor  of  the  island  of  Porto  Santo — 
he  himself  resided  in  this  island,  which  lies  far  in 
the  Western  Ocean,  in  2°  east  longitude.  Behaim 
also  married  the  daughter  of  a  foreigner,  the  go- 
vernor of  the  island  of  Fayal,  which  is  13°  longi- 
tude nearer  America  than  Porto  Santo.  He  also 
lived  by  turns  on  this  island  and  in  Lisbon. 

Behaim  came  to  Lisbon  in  1479  or  1480,  where 
Columbus  had  already  lived  since  1470  or  1474. 
Columbus  left  Lisbon  towards  the  end  of  1484.  It 
would  have  been  strange  if  these  two  men,  engaged 
in  the  same  pursuits  in  the  same  city,  had  not  be- 
come intimately  acquainted  with  each  other.  We 
should  rather  suspect  that  Columbus  would  seek  the 
society  of  Behaim,  who  had  brought  with  him  the 
reputation  of  having  been  a  pupil  of  the  great  Re- 
giomontanus,  and  as  we  have  already  observed,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  royal  commission  for  the  pro- 
motion of  nautical  affairs.  It  was  Behaim,  who,  by 
4 


his  improvement  of  the  astrolabe  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  amount  to  a  discovery,  furnished  mariners  with 
the  means  of  finding  their  way  on  the  open  sea,  and 
thus  of  putting  Columbus  into  a  position  of  ventur- 
ing out  on  the  trackless  deep.  It  was  only  after  the 
discovery  of  this  instrument  that  Columbus  made 
the  proposition  first  to  the  Portuguese  government 
for  the  prosecution  of  his  cherished  enterprize,  for 
now  the  beginning  of  such  a  project  must  have 
appeared  less  adventurous  and  the  success  of  it 
more  certain.  We  have  before  seen  that  the  nauti- 
cal commission  or  junta  de  mathematicos,  which 
King  John  appointed,  consisted  of  Jose,  Rodrigo, 
Behaim,  Bishop  Diogo  Ortiz  and  Bishop  Cal(;adilha. 
They  began  their  labors  in  1481.  Two  of  them, 
Jose  and  Rodrigo,  the  physicians,  with  Behaim,  were 
entrusted  with  the  duty  of  discovering  a  method  of 
sailing  according  to  the  sun's  elevation,  and  the 
result  was  the  improved  astrolabe.  Between  1481 
and  1483  Columbus  introduced  his  project  to  the 
notice  of  King  John.  The  King  referred  it  to  the 
mathematical  junta  for  examination.  Bishop  Ortiz 
appointed  a  sub-committee,  of  which  he  was  chair- 
man, to  report  on  it.  The  other  two  members  were 
the  physicians.  After  investigation,  they  agreed  in 
emphatically  pronouncing  the  enterprize  of  Colum- 
bus as  a  negocio  fabuloso. 

We  may  ask,  why  was  not  Behaim  placed  on  this 
sub-committee?  He  was  at  that  time  in  Lisbon,  and 
had  not  yet  entered  on  his  voyage  with  Diogo  Cao. 
He  was  acknowledged  to  be  a  learned  cosmograph, 
and  had  already  rendered  invaluable  services  as  one 
of  the  commission.  The  globe  of  Behaim  answers 
the  question.  According  to  the  distances  marked 


29 

on  this  globe,  Behaim  must  have  entirely  sanctioned 
the  plan  of  Columbus,  for  his  island  of  Fayal  lies 
pretty  nearly  in  the  middle  between  Portugal  and 
the  Asiatic  Islands.  Doubtless  it  was  well  known 
that  he  favored  the  proposition — he  was  regarded 
as  committed,  and  hence  could  not  be  an  impartial 
judge. 

The  idea  of  a  western  passage  to  India  did  not 
originate  with  Columbus,  as  we  have  already  ob- 
served. It  was  common  among  the  geographers 
and  mathematicians  of  that  day,  who,  like  Tosca- 
nelli,  Behaim,  Columbus,  Vespucci,  and  all  others 
of  any  pretensions  to  science,  were  convinced  of 
the  spherical  figure  of  the  earth,  but  who,  at  the 
same  time,  entertained  the  erroneous  idea  that  Asia 
extended  much  farther  eastward  towards  Europe 
than  it  really  does.  Alphonsus  V,  the  predecessor 
of  King  John,  had  made  enquiries  of  Toscanelli 
respecting  the  western  route,  before  Columbus  had 
laid  his  plans  before  the  Portuguese  government. 
The  idea,  hence,  was  not  new.  There  was  only 
wanting  a  man  who  was  bold  enough  to  venture  on 
the  prosecution  of  it,  and  that  man  was  Columbus. 
From  authentic  accounts,  it  appears  certain  that  he 
had  some  distinguished  patrons  in  Lisbon.  Even 
King  John  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  deterred  by 
the  unfavorable  report  of  the  committee.  Columbus 
represented  the  matter  to  him  personally.  The  King 
was  inclined  to  engage  in  the  enterprize,  but  the 
injudicious  and  extragavant  demand  of  an  hereditary 
vice-royalty  in  the  new  discovered  countries  which 
Columbus  made,  determined  the  King  to  withdraw 
his  favor.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Columbus  would 
have  gained  his  point  much  sooner  if  he  had  not 


30 

pursued  his  private  interest  to  such  an  unbounded 
extent.  He  wanted  to  be  hereditary  Vice-King  of 
the  countries  he  would  discover,  Grand  Admiral  in 
those  seas,  and  to  receive  other  extraordinary  per- 
quisites. His  demands  were  sufficient  to  awaken 
the  suspicion  and  excite  the  jealousy  of  any  Prince, 
and  this  was  the  cause  of  his  failure.  Ferdinand, 
of  Spain,  afterwards  eagerly  took  advantage  of  the 
occasion  of  some  complaints  of  the  colony  of  His- 
paniola  against  Columbus,  to  retrench  his  extra- 
ordinary privileges,  which  he  never  again  recovered. 

An  improper  advantage  was  attempted  to  be  taken 
of  Columbus,  and  the  dishonest  proposition  came 
from  the  Bishop  of  Ceuta.  He  suggested  a  plan 
by  which,  on  the  one  hand,  the  desire  of  the  King 
might  be  gratified,  and  on  the  other,  the  extravagant 
demands  of  Columbus  might  be  evaded. 

The  plan  was  to  make  an  attempt  to  discover  this 
western  course  without  the  aid  of  Columbus,  under 
the  pretence  of  sending  provisions  to  the  Cape  de 
Verd  Islands.  A  fleet  was  fitted  out  with  orders  to 
sail  westward,  in  the  course  laid  down  by  Columbus, 
and  to  ascertain  if  there  were  any  signs  of  land. 
This  fleet,  which  was  manned  by  persons  totally 
unqualified  for  the  enterprize,  sailed  a  few  degrees 
beyond  the  Cape  de  Verd  Islands,  and  returned 
with  the  report  that  they  saw  nothing  but  a  bound- 
less waste  of  water,  and  that  the  proposition  of 
Columbus  was  ridiculous.  Columbus,  without  any 
prospect  of  carrying  his  plans  into  execution,  in 
Portugal,  and  offended  by  the  mean  attempt  of 
cheating  him  out  of  his  anticipated  prize  by  the 
secret  expedition  just  alluded  to,  left  Portugal  in 
disgust,  and  without  the  knowledge  of  his  friends, 


31 

towards  the  end  of  the  year  1484,  during  the  time 
that  Behaim  was   absent  with  Diogo   Cao,  on  his 

O  ' 

voyage  to  the  coast  of  Africa. 

Columbus  and  Behaim  continued  their  corres- 
pondence after  the  former  left  Portugal.  Herrera 
reports  that  Columbus  called  Behaim  "his  friend," 
and  refers  to  him  in  his  application  for  patronage  to 
the  Spanish  Court.  Columbus,  himself,  was  not 
lost  sight  of  by  the  Court  of  Portugal;  as  has  been 
observed,  he  was  invited  to  return  to  Lisbon  by 
King  John,  in  1491.  He  refers  to  "  his  friend  "  of  the 
island  of  Fayal,  and  this  leads  us  to  presume  that 
an  amicable  relation,  and  most  probably  a  corres- 
pondence, was  sustained  between  them  for  years 
after.  The  residence  of  Behaim  on  Fayal,  which 
is  by  one-half  nearer  to  the  presumed  coast  of  Asia, 
must  have  given  a  peculiar  weight  to  his  testimony 
of  the  possibility  of  reaching  the  coast  of  Asia  and 
the  East  Indies  by  this  western  route.  When  Co- 
lumbus was  yet  in  Lisbon,  Behaim,  as  it  appears, 
was  not  yet  married;  he  married  only  after  his 
return  from  the  voyage  with  Diogo  Cao  in  1486; 
we  can  scarcely  presume  that  he  had  been  on  the 
island  of  Fayal  before  his  marriage,  and  before 
the  departure  of  Columbus  from  Portugal.  When, 
then,  he  refers  to  Behaim  as  his  "friend  in  Fayal," 
he  must  have  been  on  intimate  terms  with  him  dur- 
ing the  time  that  Behaim  lived  on  the  island.  His 
residence  on  this  island  was  of  essential  service  to 
Columbus,  for  he  was  there  placed  in  a  position  to 
discover  various  traces  of  the  existence  of  a  coun- 
try towards  the  west.  From  time  to  time  large 
masses  of  pine  timber  were  deposited  on  the  beach 
of  Fayal  by  currents  from  the  west,  and  on  the 


32 

shores  of  the  neighboring  island  of  Flores,  were 
found  corpses  of  an  unknown  race  of  men,  and 
these  circumstances  were  regarded  as  proofs  of  the 
existence  of  a  country  to  the  west. 

Even  if  we  are  far  from  ascribing  to  Behaim  the 
merit  of  discovering  America,  which  is  founded  only 
on  the  untenable  presumption  that,  in  his  voyage  ta 
Southern  Africa,  he  was  driven  to  the  coast  of 
Brazil,  as  Cabral  was  subsequently,  or  that  he  was 
once  drifted  to  the  coast  of  North  America  from 
Fayal,  of  which,  however,  he  says  nothing  on  his 
globe — if  we  ascribe  to  him  no  undeserved  merit, 
yet  we  maintain  that  he  contributed  essentially  to 
the  execution  of  Columbus'  plans  by  his  astrolabe, 
which  enabled  navigators  to  direct  their  course  in 
the  open  sea,  as  well  as  by  the  opinion,  though  erro- 
neous, but  which  he  shared  with  Columbus,  of  the 
proximity  of  the  coast  of  Asia,  to  which  his  repu- 
tation as  a  learned  cosmograph,  living  so  far  on  the 
Western  Ocean,  gave  peculiar  weight. 

If  we  examine  the  globe  of  Behaim,  which  he 
constructed  in  1492,  the  same  year  that  Columbus 
sailed  on  his  first  voyage  of  discovery,  and  observe 
the  short  distance  which  he  makes  between  Fayal 
and  the  Antilles,  and  thence  to  the  islands  of  the 
Asiatic  coast,  we  cannot  for  a  moment  doubt  that 
Behaim  would  have  had  no  hesitation  in  undertaking 
such  a  western  voyage.  He  might,  indeed,  have 
thought  it  more  rational  to  follow  the  more  certain 
way  to  East  India  round  Africa,  which  he  himself 
accomplished  as  far  as  the  22°  of  south  latitude, 
and  which  he  distinctly  marks  on  his  globe,  although 
Vasco  de  Gama  first  completely  sailed  over  this 
course. 


33 

In  considering  this  subject,  we  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  fact,  that  it  was  not  the  idea  of  discov- 
ering a  new  continent  which  determined  Columbus 
to  steer  westward,  but  the  object  was  to  discover  a 
marine  passage  to  the  East  Indies.  Columbus  had 
no  presentiment  of  a  new  continent;  he  merely  pre- 
sumed, that  on  this  western  way  he  would  discover 
many  new  islands  and  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia, 
and  of  these  new  possessions,  which  he  expected  to 
discover  for  the  crown  of  Spain,  he  claimed  the 
rights  and  immunities  of  a  Vice-King  before  he 
sailed. 

The  new  continent  of  America  was  discovered  by 
pure  accident.  Columbus,  Vespucci,  and  generally 
all  the  navigators  of  that  day,  had  no  other  idea 
than  that  it  was  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia  which  they 
had  discovered.  Both  these  men  died  in  that  con- 
viction. They,  as  well  as  the  Portuguese  and  Span- 
iards generally,  were  not  satisfied  with  the  discovery 
of  these  countries,  so  long  as  the  anticipated  way 
to  the  East  Indies  was  not  found  in  that  direction. 
Even  all  subsequent  voyages,  also  the  last  of  Co- 
lumbus and  Vespucci,  had  no  other  design  in  view 
than  to  discover  a  passage  to  the  East  Indies, 
through  or  over  those  large  Asiatic  Islands,  as  they 
thought,  or  at  least  preliminarily  to  reach  the  Spice 
Islands  of  Molucca.  The  opinion,  that  America 
was  a  part  of  Asia,  was  entertained  by  the  geogra- 
phers during  the  whole  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
At  first  the  newly  discovered  coast  of  the  American 
continent  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  Asia,  stretch- 
ing far  to  the  east.  Subsequently,  North  and  South 
America  appear  on  the  maps  as  two  divided  islands 
at  a  moderate  distance  from  the  continent  of  East- 


ern  Asia.  South  America  is  the  proper  New  World, 
and  bears  the  name  America.  North  America  con- 
tinues to  be  small,  and  is  frequently  associated  with 
Cuba  under  the  same  name.  Still  later,  when  the 
discovery  was  made  that  there  was  no  passage 
through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  Magellan  had 
sailed  out  into  the  Pacific  Ocean,  America  again 
becomes  a  part  of  the  continent  of  Asia,  extending 
eastwardly  far  out  into  the  sea.  It  would  be  inter- 
esting, if  we  had  time,  to  follow  the  various  changes 
on  the  most  ancient  maps. 

On  his  second  voyage,  in  1494,  Columbus  made 
his  crew  swear,  as  he  himself  believed,  that  the 
coast  of  Cuba  was  the  extreme  end  of  the  conti- 
nent of  Asia,  a  part  of  the  province  of  Mango,  of 
the  southern  section  of  Cathai,  (China,)  and  that  it 
might  be  reached  by  land  from  Spain.  Towards 
the  end  of  1500,  he  writes  to  Donna  Juana  de  la 
Torre,  governess  of  the  infant  Don  Juan,  "if  the 
new  countries  discovered  by  me  are  not  so  highly 
appreciated  as  the  other  parts  of  India,  it  is  owing 
to  personal  hostility;  from  these  lands  commerce 
will  be  extended  to  Arabia  Felix  and  to  Mecca." 
In  a  letter,  which  he  wrote  in  July,  1504,  on  his 
fourth  and  last  voyage,  he  thus  expresses  himself: 
"On  the  13th  of  May,  I  arrived  in  the  province  of 
Mango,  which  borders  on  the  coast  of  China. 
From  Ciguara,  in  the  land  of  Veragua,  there  are 
but  ten  days  travel  to  the  river  Ganges."  In  a  let- 
ter to  Pope  Alexander,  in  1502,  he  says:  "I  have 
discovered  1500  islands  and  333  miles  of  the  conti- 
nent of  Asia."  He  promises  the  Pope,  from  the 
profits  of  his  discoveries,  to  support  for  seven  years 
50,000  infantry  and  5,000  cavalry  for  the  conquest 


35 

of  the  Holy  Sepulchre;  and  declares  that  it  was 
Satan  alone  who  prevented  him  thus  far,  as  he  had 
fondly  hoped,  to  gather  annually  a  ton  of  gold." 
Vespucci  also,  in  a  letter  to  Pier  Francisco  de  Medi- 
cis,  says,  "  that  his  discoveries  related  to  the  bound- 
less country  of  Asia."  Vespucci  had  as  little  con- 
ception of  a  new  continent  as  Columbus.  Whatever 
geographical  errors  these  men  may  have  enter- 
tained, it  is  certain  that  Martin  Behaim  aided  them 
essentially  in  their  discoveries. 

Whether  Behaim  was  intimately  acquainted  with 
Vespucci,  cannot  be  determined  from  Spanish  or 
Portuguese  documents.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact, 
that  Vespucci's  name  is  no  where  mentioned  in 
Portuguese  archives.  But  still  we  should  not  won- 
der at  this  apparent  oversight,  when  we  know  that 
many  persons  of  distinction  and  many  important 
events  have  been  passed  over  in  silence  by  the  au- 
thors of  those  days.  Facts  crowded  upon  them 
too  thickly  to  record  every  thing.  In  general,  they 
were  satisfied  with  mentioning  only  the  commanders 
of  an  expedition.  The  subordinate  officers  and  the 
astronomers  are  frequently  unnoticed.  The  latter, 
on  the  other  hand,  who  not  improperly  regarded 
themselves  as  the  principal  characters  of  the  expe- 
dition, as  they  directed  the  course  of  the  ship  in 
these  voyages  of  discovery,  very  seldom  in  their 
reports  mention  the  names  of  the  commanders. 
Thus,  for  instance,  Behaim,  when  he  speaks  of  his 
voyage  four  distinct  times  on  his  globe,  in  no  place 
mentions  Diogo  Cao.  Vespucci  himself,  who  ac- 
companied these  expeditions  only  as  astronomer 
and  cosmograph,  makes  no  secret  of  the  fact,  that 
he  had  a  superior  officer  over  him,  but  he  speaks 


36 

with  little  respect  of  the  scientific  attainments  of 
these  officers,  and  never  mentions  their  names  in 
his  reports.  Besides,  many  important  reports  of 
those  days  may  have  been  lost :  in  others,  frequently 
momentous  circumstances  are  omitted.  Thus,  for 
example,  the  celebrated  Spanish  historian  of  the 
West  Indies,  Herrera,  who  mentions  Behaim,  knows 
nothing  of  the  Italian  savant  Toscanelli  who  cor- 
responded with  Columbus,  and  to  whom  the  latter 
is  probably  indebted  for  his  idea  of  finding  a  west- 
ward way  to  the  East  India.  Thus  also  the  cotem- 
poraneous  Spanish  writer,  Oviedo,  does  not  even 
once  allude  to  Vespucci,  who  was  at  the  same  time 
held  in  such  high  respect  by  the  Spanish  Court. 
The  name  of  Christovalo  Jaquez,  a  great  navigator 
of  those  days,  does  not  occur,  where  we  would 
most  certainly  expect  to  find  it,  in  the  Records  of 
Domiano  de  Goes,  nor  in  the  general  catalogue  of 
Portuguese  voyages  by  Faria  y  Sousa.  In  the  let- 
ters of  Vespucci  the  name  of  Columbus  occurs  but 
once,  and  then  he  is  mentioned  as  the  discoverer  of 
the  island  Antillia.  Thus,  until  the  more  recent 
investigations  of  Munioz,  it  was  not  known  where 
Vespucci  died ;  and  if  we  wonder  that  the  name  of 
Behaim  is  not  found  in  the  present  Portuguese  ar- 
chives, and  from  this  fact  conclude  that  he  was  not 
highly  esteemed  in  that  country,  we  must  also  won- 
der that  the  name  of  Vespucci  is  not  found  in  the 
same  archives,  and  yet  we  know  that  he  was  four 
years  in  the  service  of  Portugal,  performed  two 
voyages  to  America  at  the  expense  of  the  king,  and 
was  in  other  respects  honored  by  the  government. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Behaim,  who  spent 
his  time  between  Fayal  and  Lisbon,  became  ac- 


37 

quainted  with  Vespucci,  and  that  these  two  men  of 
similar  tastes  and  pursuits  should  have  frequently 
consulted  about  the  most  probable  method  of  find- 
ing a  western  way  to  the  East.  It  is  certain  that 
Vespucci  used  the  improved  astrolabe  of  Behaim, 
as  well  as  Columbus.  In  a  letter  in  which  he 
speaks  of  his  first  voyage  in  the  service  of  Portugal, 
he  complains  of  the  ignorance  of  the  mariners,  and 
says  that  the  expedition  would  have  lost  its  way 
entirely  after  a  storm,  if  he  had  not  set  them  right 
by  the  use  of  the  astrolabe  and  quadrant. 

Behaim's  connexion  with  the  discovery  of  the 
Straits  of  Magellan,  which  Wagenseil  ascribes  to 
him,  is  very  remarkable.  Magellan,  embittered  by 
the  ingratitude  of  the  King  of  Portugal,  whom  he 
had  faithfully  served  five  years,  attached  himself  to 
the  service  of  Spain  in  1517.  He  exhibited  to  the 
bishop  of  Burgos,  a  beautiful  painted  globe  on 
which  was  described  the  course  he  intended  to  take 
in  finding  the  way  to  the  East.  The  Straits,  how- 
ever, through  which  he  intended  to  pass,  he  pur- 
posely left  white  on  his  globe,  so  that  no  person 
might  discover  his  secret.  When  pressed  by  the 
ministers,  he  declared  his  purpose  to  be  to  sail 
southward  from  the  mouth  of  Rio  de  Solis  (now 
Rio  de  la  Plata)  until  he  came  to  the  Straits.  He 
was  certain  of  finding  it,  for  he  had  seen  it  marked 
on  a  chart  of  Martin  Behaim,  a  celebrated  Portu- 
guese geographer,  and  that  this  chart  threw  much 
light  on  the  subject. 

Pigofetta,  who  accompanied  Magellan  on  this 
expedition  and  kept  an  extensive  journal,  and  one  of 
the  few  who  returned  in  good  health,  says  :  "On  the 
21st  of  October,  1520,  we  discovered  a  Strait,  to 

458403 


38 

which  we  gave  the  name  of  the  Eleven  Thousand 
Virgins,  to  whom  that  day  was  consecrated.  This 
Strait  is  one-hundred  and  ten  miles  long  and  a  half 
mile  wide.  It  extends  into  another  sea,  to  which 
we  gave  the  name  of  Pacific.  High,  snow  covered 
mountains  surround  it ;  it  is  also  very  deep,  so  that 
we  could  not  cast  anchor  excepting  very  near  the 
shore,  and  then  only  in  twenty-five  or  thirty  fathoms. 
Without  the  superior  knowledge  of  our  commander 
we  never  would  have  found  the  outlet  of  this  Strait, 
for  we  all  thought  it  was  closed  at  the  other  end, 
but  our  commander  who  was  as  skillful  as  he  was 
adventurous,  knew  that  he  had  to  steer  through  a 
remarkably  narrow  and  unknown  passage  which  he 
had  seen  designated  on  a  chart  prepared  by  the 
celebrated  cosmographer,  Martin  Behaim"  Sup- 
ported by  this  testimony,  the  distinguished  author, 
William  Postellus,  (born  in  1510  in  Normandy,) 
called  this  Strait  Fretunt  Martini  Bohemi. 

How  are  we  to  account  for  the  fact  that  Behaim 
mentions  this  narrow  passage  between  the  two  seas, 
and  yet  we  have  no  account  of  his  having  been 
there?  But  what  he  did  from  1494  to  1506,  when 
he  died  in  Lisbon,  (that  is,  twelve  years,)  is  wholly 
unknown  to  us.  It  is  not  impossible  that  he  may 
have  seen  the  Straits  and  designated  them  on  his 
chart  from  actual  observation,  though  we  have  no 
account  of  it.  The  last  letter  from  him  extant  is  of 
the  date  of  1494,  and  his  absence  on  distant  expedi- 
tions may  account  for  this  interruption  in  his  corres- 
pondence. This  is  a  very  probable  surmise.  On 
the  island  of  Fayal,  he  was  one  third  nearer 
America  than  the  Portuguese — the  Azores  were  a 
usual  landing  place  for  ships  on  their  way  to 


39 

America ;  Columbus  himself  on  the  return  from  his 
first  voyage  (February  13,  1493)  landed  on  the 
island  of  St.  Maria ;  the  inhabitants  of  the  Azores 
were  enterprizing  seamen  who  carried  their  com- 
merce even  to  Ireland.  Behaim  was  in  1494.  in 
which  his  last  letter  is  dated,  but  thirty-five  years  of 
age,  a  man  in  the  vigor  of  life.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, we  feel  almost  compelled  to  assume,  that  a 
man  so  ardently  devoted  to  marine  affairs  and 
geography,  and  who  was  so  much  nearer  to  America 
than  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  could  not  resist  the 
impulse  of  making  a  voyage  to  the  new  and  much 
talked  of  country.  It  was  precisely  at  the  time  that 
Behaim  had  returned  to  Portugal  and  to  Fayal 
from  his  visit  to  Nurnberg,  that  the  Portuguese  were 
most  actively  engaged  in  finding  a  southern  passage 
to  India  on  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America ;  is 
it  at  all  improbable  that  Behaim  accompanied  some 
of  these  expeditions  and  actually  accomplished  the 
passage  through  the  Strait  himself! 

We  are  not  to  assume  that  no  other  expeditions 
sailed  towards  America  than  those  of  which  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  writers  make  mention,  and  hence 
that  Behaim  never  visited  the  Strait,  because  no 
writer  gives  us  any  account  of  it.  Even  some  of 
the  government  expeditions  are  not  noticed  by 
authors;  but  besides  these,  there  were  not  a  few 
secret  adventures  on  private  account,  which  of 
course  are  not  recorded,  but  by  means  of  these, 
intercourse  betwreen  the  two  hemispheres  was  com- 
paratively frequent. 

Even  if  we  cannot  positively  assume  that  Behaim 
himself  ever  saw  the  Strait,  yet  the  designation  of 
it  on  his  map  can  be  naturally  accounted  for  on  the 


40 

ground  that  he  presumed  there  must  be  a  passage 
and  he  marked  it  down  before  it  was  really  dis- 
covered. Even  if  he  never  had  been  in  Brazil,  yet 
the  different  expeditions  to  the  Brazilian  coast,  and 
particularly  those  of  Vespucci,  taught  him  that  the 
newly  discovered  country  of  10°  south  latitude  ex- 
tended towards  south-west,  and  that  the  presumed 
and  long  sought  for  passage  must  eventually  be 
found  further  towards  the  south.  He  marked  it  on 
his  map  agreeably  to  the  custom  of  the  geographers 
of  that  day,  who  not  only  introduced  what  was 
demonstrated  to  be  geographical  truth,  but  also 
their  own  probable  conjectures  and  assumptions. 
He  had  the  analogy  of  Africa  before  him,  which 
extends  far  towards  south-east,  but  which  finally 
terminates  in  a  point  which  can  be  sailed  around. 
Behaim  had  also  marked  on  his  globe  the  eastern 
coast  of  Africa  and  the  whole  passage  to  India, 
although  this  prescribed  way  was  actually  sailed 
over  for  the  first  time  six  years  later  by  Vasco  de 
Gama. 

But  what  shall  we  say  to  this  remarkable  fact, 
that  a  geographer  in  the  centre  of  Germany,  far 
removed  from  all  connexion  with  the  navigators  of 
the  west,  not  only  designated  with  tolerable  exact- 
ness the  figure  of  South  America,  but  even  the 
Straits  subsequently  named  after  Magellan,  before 
Magellan  discovered  them?  This  was  actually 
done  by  John  Schemer  in  1520,  a  celebrated  geo- 
grapher of  Nurnberg,  whose  charts  and  globes,  as 
well  as  those  of  Apianus  of  the  same  period, 
separate  North  and  South  America  from  Asia  and 
Japan  by  a  sea,  whilst  other  maps  of  that  day 
regard  America  as  a  part  of  Asia  or  in  close  con- 


•         41 

nexion  with  it.  This  globe  is  still  preserved  in  the 
city  library  of  Nurnberg.  Magellan  discovered  the 
Strait  on  October  21,  1520;  in  the  same  year, 
Schoner  finished  his  globe  in  Bamberg;  he  could 
not  have  heard  of  this  discovery  in  time  to  have 
marked  it  on  his  globe  which  was  finished  the  same 
year  that  the  discovery  was  made,  but  besides  this, 
we  knew  that  he  had  designated  the  Strait  on  an- 
other globe  five  years  before!  The  question  is, 
whence  did  he  derive  his  information  of  a  southern, 
but  yet  nameless  passage  into  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
but  from  Behaim?  Schoner  had  studied  in  Nurn- 
berg, where  he  became  well  acquainted  with  the 
correspondents  and  relatives  of  Behaim,  and  most 
probably  corresponded  with  him  himself,  and  thus 
gained  his  information.  In  the  preparation  of  his 
globe,  he  would  naturally  consult  the  great  astrono- 
mers and  geographers  of  the  day,  and  standing  in 
close  connexion  with  those  of  his  own  country,  and 
hearing  all  about  Behaim's  discoveries  and  well 
founded  assumptions,  he  adopted  them  and  trans- 
ferred them  to  his  globe;  and  yet  strange  to  say, 
this  same  man  who  in  1520  had  tolerably  correct 
geographical  ideas,  thirteen  years  later  (1533)  aban- 
doned the  opinion  that  America  was  a  distinct 
country,  and  wrote  a  quarto  to  prove  that  the 
American  islands  constituted  a  part  of  Asia.  He 
says,  that  later  investigations  establish  this  fact ! 
Whatever  we  mav  think  of  the  relation  of  Behaim 

0 

to  the  discovery  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  it  cannot 
appear  unreasonable  that  Postell  should  have  given 
it  the  name  of  Fretum  Martini  Bohemi.  Magellan 
according  to  indisputable  documents,  had  repeatedly 
acknowledged  that  he  had  found  this  Strait  desig- 


42 

nated  on  a  chart  of  Behaim,  and  that  this  chart 
awakened  in  him  the  idea  of  sailing  through  this 
passage  to  the  Moluccas.  The  honor  of  having 
really  found  the  way  to  the  Spice  Islands  through 
the  Strait,  belongs  to  Magellan,  but  it  should  have 
retained  the  name  of  him  to  whom  the  adventurous 
navigator  himself  confesses  that  he  owed  the  know- 
ledge of  the  passage. 

We  shall  now  speak  more  particularly  of  Be- 
haim's  globe,  to  which  allusion  has  several  times 
been  made. 

It  has  been  stated  that  his  principal  residence 
was  the  island  of  Fayal,  where  he  was  engaged  in 
the  service  of  Portugal.  It  appears  that  his  cor- 
respondence with  his  relations  in  Nurnberg  was  not 
very  active.  He  had  been  absent  too  long  to  be  on 
very  intimate  terms  with  the  family  at  home. 

In  1491  he  visited  them  in  Nurnberg.  His  broth- 
er, Wolf,  who  resided  in  Lyons,  wrote  to  his  cousin 
in  Nurnberg  thus:  "I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  my 
brother  Martin  is  still  with  you,  leading  such  a  sin- 
gular life.  I  wish  we  were  entirely  rid  of  him." 
It  is  likely  that  the  free  and  easy  manners  of  a 
southern  sailor,  did  not  exactly  suit  the  sober  indus- 
try and  rigid  morals  of  the  staid  old  Nurnbergers. 
They  expected  that  the  knighted  Martin  should  de- 
vote himself  from  morning  to  evening  to  the  duties 
of  the  counting  room,  or  to  some  other  utilitarian 
pursuit,  with  the  same  activity  that  characterized 
the  sons  of  the  Nurnberger  merchants.  Instead  of 
this,  he  did  nothing  but  spend  his  time  in  an  ama- 
teur cultivation  of  a  small  garden.  This  brought  in 
no  money,  and  his  economical  neighbors  regarded 
it  as  an  unprofitable  waste  of  time.  His  brother 


43 

Wolf,  who  must  have  been  a  great  utilitarian, 
thought  he  might  open  a  trade  in  vegetables !  His 
mode  oflife  gave  great  offence,  and  more  particularly 
when  they  discovered  that  his  rank  as  a  knight 
would  not  allow  him,  according  to  the  Portuguese 
notions  of  propriety,  to  engage  in  commerce  of  any 
kind. 

Behaim  had  become  a  sailor,  and  as  was  the  case 
with  all  Portuguese  seamen  of  that  day,  he  was 
always  ready  to  peril  his  life  at  sea  or  in  battle 
against  the  Moors  by  land,  but  little  inclined  to  a 
regular,  continuous  business  requiring  sedentary, 
quiet  labor.  The  manners  of  the  Portuguese  at 
that  time  differed  so  much  from  those  of  the  Ger- 
mans, that  a  Portuguese  who  remained  in  Germany, 
every  where  gave  offence.  Even  their  costume  was 
too  gay  and  frivolous  for  the  sober  and  plain  dressed 
Nurnbergers.  When  Behaim's  son  visited  his 
father's  relatives  in  Nurnberg  in  1520,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  lay  aside  his  Portuguese  dress,  and  to  buy 
a  plain  black  German  suit.  From  all  this,  it  is 
evident  that  Martin  Behaim  was  no  very  welcome 
guest  to  the  friends  of  his  family  in  Nurnberg. 

The  principal  design  of  his  visit  to  that  city,  may 
have  been  to  settle  affairs  relative  to  his  inheritance, 
for  his  mother  had  died  in  1487.  It  is  certain  that 
he  returned  to  Portugal  much  richer  than  when  he 
left  it.  He  remained  in  Nurnberg  two  years. 

It  was  not,  however,  horticultural  recreations 
alone  that  occupied  his  time  during  these  two  years. 
Together  with  the  prosecution  of  his  favorite 
studies,  he  constructed  the  celebrated  globe  which 
is  to  this  day  preserved  in  the  family  of  Behaim. 
An  inscription  on  it,  asserts  that  he  made  it  in  1492 
6* 


at  the  request  of  three  persons,  the  principal  citi- 
zens, and  leaves  it  in  the  city  as  a  memento  of  his 
sojourn.  It  is  crowded  with  notices  of  the  various 
islands  and  regions,  some  of  which  are  curious 
enough. 

The  diameter  of  the  globe  is  two  feet.  The 
material  of  which  it  is  constructed  is  pasteboard, 
covering  a  wooden  frame.  This  pasteboard  is 
coated  with  gypsum,  and  over  this  again  is  stretched 
parchment  on  which  the  drawings  are  made.  An 
iron  axis  goes  through  the  centre.  The  sea  is 
painted  in  ultra  marine,  the  land  is  brown  and 
green ;  the  tops  of  the  snow  mountains  are  white. 
The  inscriptions  and  names  are  of  different  colors, 
in  gold,  silver,  white  and  yellow.  The  meridian  is 
iron;  the  horizon  is  brass,  and  the  whole  is  sup- 
ported on  an  iron  tripod.  As  may  be  expected, 
time  has  wrought  some  changes  in  its  appearance ; 
the  ultra  marine  has  become  black,  and  the  other 
colors  have  become  pale.  It  is  now  preserved  with 
great  care  by  the  family,  and  in  1847  a  perfect  fac- 
simile of  it  was  made  for  the  Academy  of  Paris, 
and  a  copy  was  also  left  with  the  family.  There  is 
no  notice  of  America  on  this  globe. 

Behaim  returned  to  Portugal  as  we  have  seen  in 
1493.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  was  sent  by  King 
John  on  a  secret  embassy  to  the  Netherlands,  with 
which  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was  in  some  way 
connected.  The  fact  is,  it  concerned  the  emperor's 
own  son  Philip,  who  was  about  to  ascend  the  throne 
of  the  lower  countries.  The  reason  why  Behaim 
was  sent,  and  not  a  native  Portuguese,  was  doubt- 
less from  consideration  to  the  emperor  himself. 
Behaim  was  not  unknown  to  him,  and  he  had 


openly  declared  Behaim  to  be  the  most  extensively 
travelled  citizen  of  the  German  empire.  But  in 
relation  to  Philip  also,  a  native  of  the  Netherlands, 
the  selection  was  appropriate,  for  Behaim  had  lived 
in  that  country,  had  married  there,  and  understood 
the  language  as  well  as  the  German. 

He  could  not  at  first  successfully  execute  his 
mission.  On  the  voyage  from  Lisbon  to  the  Ne- 
therlands, the  ship  was  captured  by  an  English 
corsair,  and  he  was  conveyed  to  England  as  a  pri- 
soner. The  complaint  against  the  piracy  of  the 
English  at  that  time  was  universal.  Even  English 
nobles  were  engaged  in  the  nefarious  business.  In 
1470,  an  English  corsair  named  Falconbridge,  a 
nephew  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  who  at  that  time 
governed  England,  captured  twelve  Portuguese 
merchant  ships  in  the  channel,  and  plundered  them. 
The  Portuguese  received  permission  from  their 
King  Alphonsus  to  make  reprisals  by  which  the 
English  marine  interests  suffered  to  such  an  extent, 
that  King  Edward  sent  commissioners  to  Portugal 
to  negotiate  for  a  cessation  of  the  practice. 

Behaim  was  detained  in  England  with  his  attend- 
ants, three  months.  He  was  several  times  so  re- 
duced by  fever,  that  he  conceived  himself  on  the 
point  of  death.  After  his  recovery,  he  escaped  from 
captivity  by  the  help  of  a  pirate,  who  conveyed  him 
by  night  over  the  channel  to  the  coast  of  France. 
Thence  he  went  to  the  Netherlands  in  execution  of 
his  commission.  It  is  not  known  what  the  precise 
object  of  it  was,  but  soon  after  the  arrival  of  Maxi- 
milian in  the  Netherlands,  Behaim  suddenly  left 
with  a  despatch  to  his  sovereign.  He  wrote  to  his 
friends  in  Nurnbcrg,  (March  37,  1494,)  that  he  in- 


tended  to  remain  in  Portugal  until  Whitsuntide,  and 
then  return  to  Fayal.  This  is  the  last  letter  from 
him  that  is  extant.  Of  his  destiny  from  1494  to  1506, 
we  know  nothing.  That  he  stood  in  the  highest 
esteem  in  Lisbon,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
Cavalier  Diego  Gomez,  dedicated  to  him  a  report 
on  the  discovery  of  America,  besides  the  confidence 
reposed  in  him  by  King  John.  With  the  death  of 
King  John,  the  affairs  of  Behaim  took  an  unfavora- 
ble turn.  The  King  died  October  25,  1495;  under 
his  successor  Manuel,  Behaim  seerns  to  have  lost 
his  position  at  the  court  of  Portugal.  It  is  not  cer- 
tain that  he  had  fallen  into  disgrace,  at  least,  Pigo- 
fetta  reports,  that  the  King  had  a  chart  of  Behaim 
suspended  in  his  chamber,  on  which  the  subse- 
quently discovered  Straits  of  Magellan  are  distinctly 
marked,  and  this  is  regarded  as  presumptive  evi- 
dence that  he  was  still  esteemed  by  the  King. 

The  years  between  1494  and  1506,  were  rich  in 
expeditions  to  the  west  and  east,  and  we  can  only 
conjecture  how  Behaim  was  employed  during  that 
period.  We  do  not  certainly  know  whether  he  took 
part  in  any  of  them,  but  this  is  certain  that  he  be- 
came poor,  and  for  this  we  cannot  account,  for  he 
brought  a  considerable  sum  with  him  from  Nurn- 
berg.  Under  King  John  II,  he  doubtless  drew  a 
salary  from  the  court  which  he  served  as  equerry. 

Later  important  discoveries,  as  that  of  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  the  marine  passage  to  the  East 
Indies  and  of  America,  obscured  his  merits  to  some 
extent ;  younger  men  rose  up  prominently ;  most 
probably  King  Manuel  on  his  accession,  either 
reduced  his  salary  or  withdrew  it  altogether.  Now 
he  was  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  his  private 


47 

funds,  for  his  knightly  dignity  forbade  him  to  engage 
in  commerce,  and  besides,  it  is  likely  he  had  but 
little  taste  for  such  employments.  From  the  rest- 
less sea  life,  and  love  of  adventure,  the  luxury  and 
enormous  expense  of  living,  the  ostentatious  and 
wasteful  extravagance  which  prevailed  in  Portugal 
at  that  time,  when  every  body  sought  his  fortune 
at  sea,  and  hoped  without  any  trouble  to  become 
rich  again  in  the  East  Indies, — from  these  causes, 
his  patrimony  could  very  easily  be  spent.  Behaim 
was  not  the  only  man  in  Portugal  about  that  time, 
who  from  an  exalted  position  in  society,  was  brought 
down  to  penury  and  want.  Camoens,  the  cele- 
brated author  of  the  Lusiad,  (born  1517,)  who  had 
resided  a  long  time  in  India,  spent  the  last  years  of 
his  life  in  Lisbon  in  wretched  poverty,  and  subsisted 
on  alms,  which  a  slave  begged  for  him  in  the  streets 
at  night.  Pock,  a  cotemporary  writer,  gives  us  an 
idea  of  life  in  Portugal.  He  tells  us  that  men  be- 
came rich  and  poor  very  suddenly — that  the  idea  of 
saving  money  never  entered  their  minds,  and  that 
they  would  maintain  an  outward  appearance  of 
state  and  luxury,  even  if  at  home  the  most  lamen- 
table destitution  prevailed.  "This  is  their  way 
here" — he  says — "if  a  man  has  ten  ducats  he  must 
have  a  scarlet  coat,  a  silver  sword,  a  guitar  to  sere- 
nade the  ladies  with  at  night.  In  Portugal,  the  air 
is  poisoned  with  pride.  They  are  the  proudest 
people  that  can  be  found  in  the  world  ;  they  ride 
the  whole  day  through  the  streets  with  four  servants 
walking  behind  them,  and  when  they  return  home, 
instead  of  having  fowls  and  other  roast  meats  to 
eat,  they  devour  a  radish  seasoned  with  salt." 


48 

Probably  Behaim  was  enticed  into  these  extrava- 
gant habits,  and  he  became  poor.  But  sea  faring 
men  seldom  become  rich ;  Columbus  and  Vespucci 
were  both  poor,  however  eagerly  the  former  sought 
after  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  It  may  be  that 
Behaim  lost  his  fortune  in  some  unsuccessful  pri- 
vate expedition,  for  we  can  hardly  suppose  that 
such  an  adventurous,  restless  spirit  as  he  would  be 
content  with  the  inactive  life  of  a  plain  citizen.  He 
may  have  joined  one  of  those  numerous  expeditions 
of  the  day,  and  like  many  other  bold  adventurers 
before  him  and  since,  paid  the  price  of  his  rashness 
by  the  loss  of  his  fortune.  Thus  we  can  explain 
why  it  was  that  he  often  found  himself  in  pecuniary 
straits  during  his  repeated  sojourns  in  Lisbon,  for 
after  the  death  of  John  II,  he  probably  drew  no 
pension  from  the  court. 

Behaim  died  July  29, 1506,  in  a  hospital  instituted 
by  the  Germans  in  Lisbon,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Dominican  church.  He  left  one  son,  but  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  inherited  the  talents  or  energy 
of  his  father. 

It  is  not  known  whether  this  son  has  left  any 
descendants.  Most  probably  that  branch  of  the 
family  died  out  with  the  decease  of  the  son,  but  the 
father,  Martin  Behaim,  though  not  represented  by 
any  posterity,  has  achieved  for  himself  a  name  that 
will  be  handed  down  to  the  latest  generation,  and 
cherished  with  veneration  by  all  men  of  science. 


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